Great British Menu ™
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Fossil Finder
Nicholas is filleting brill.
Nicholas: "This is a really nice Cornish brill."
Nicholas: "That's my fish going in for a 30 minute brine. Strong little dish, really. Just need to get it all where I want it. The title is Fossil Finder and it is inspired by Mary Anning who discovered lots of fossils on the Jurassic Coast."
Nicholas: "Im taking beautiful south coast brill. I'm just in the middle of making a mousse with some of the trimmings, which I'm going to stuff inside. And then with all the bones, I've got a really nice roasted fish bone stock, which I'm reducing down with some Jurassic coast wine. So it's basically like a lovely bit of fish and a sauce. And then on the side we've got a barbecued leek with a little seaweed salad and I'm just adding some pickled cucumbers. And then I've got our seaweed and Parmesan soda bread and tuille."
Michael Caines: " And there's a theme here. You clearly love to have quite a lot going on in the dish."
Nicholas is also working on his bread element. A seaweed and parmesan dough fills ammonite shaped molds.
He sandwiches seaweed and dill mousse between his brill fillets.
Nicholas reduces roast fish bones and orange wine sauce.
Nicholas: "There's a lot of bold flavor in the sauce, so I want a nice viscosity. I'm really sort of focusing on keeping that acidity quite high, but equally, I'm sort of wary of going too high now."
Nicholas: "So far, so good. The sauce is coming down. I'm going to finish it with some fino sherry."
Nicholas prepares tempura batter to fry brill trims.
Plating
Nicholas serves up his nori rolled brill dish.
Nicholas: "I've cooked it a bit faster than I should have done, but there you go. You live and learn."
Seaweed butter is plated next to ammonite shaped seaweed and parmesan soda bread. Tempura "brill frills" are dusted with seaweed powder.
Sliced ballatine of brill with seaweed and dill mousse wrapped in nori comes next. Finished with fish sauce and a seaweed tuille.
Michael Caines: "Nicholas, lot going on here, but you seemed a little bit less satisfied at the pass there. What was going on?"
Nicholas: "I think the thing that was stressing me out was the cooking of the fish. I did manage to give it a rest, and it has come out looking like nice and pearlescent."
Peers, tasting behind the scenes
"I can understand why he was worried about the fish, but actually, I think the eating quality of it's really nice."
Back in the judging room
Michael Caines: "Are you pleased with the bread?"
Nicholas: "It's a nice bread. It really sort of comes into its own when it's used to mop up the sauce."
Peers, tasting behind the scenes
Soda bread. Quite clever to do that, actually. No proving and mucking about.
Back in the judging room
Michael Caines: "How do you think the sauce has played its part in this dish?"
Nicholas: "I think it's a really good sauce. I think it's got a real depth of flavor."
Peers, tasting behind the scenes
"It's quite salty."
"I like salty food, but it is teetering."
"It's really quite salty."
Back in the judging room
Michael Caines: "And what would you score the dish if you had to?"
Nicholas: "I'm honestly kicking myself about a few elements here, but I'm going to put myself out there and go for a six."
Final Judging
Michael Caines: "Nicholas, your dish. Fossil Finder. The presentation was lovely and fun and hit the brief. I like the ammonite shapes too. Very, very playful. The brill was slightly overcooked and the mousse in the centre was a bit grainy. The sauce was delicious. Well balanced, great depth of flavour and the acidity levels and seasoning were just spot on. The bread was delicious and I understand that you wanted to use it to mop up the sauce, but, you know, let's have more of that delicious sauce to mop up."
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